Lynn watches Francisco as he walks on the treadmill. For months, he was making good progress, but lately he's been slowing down. She looks at him and sees the strained look on his face as he takes a step with his right leg. She focuses her eyes on his leg, in hopes of seeing anything that could be the cause of his pain, but she can't see a thing.

She walks over to him and asks, "Are you okay?"

He nods his head, "Yeah, why?"

"Because you've been walking slower than normal."

Francisco turns off the treadmill, "It's not a big deal. My back has just been hurting a little more since the accident."

"Do you want a massage? I could make it better," she offers.

Francisco hesitates to respond. He knows that she more than capable of helping him at the moment, but the relief is usually temporary.

He grabs a cleaning wipe and looks at the indoor pool, "I'd rather just hit the water instead, you know, for my back," he convinces her as he wipes down the treadmill.

"Alright! Race you to the changing room," Lynn challenges him.

He shakes his head, "I just ran on the treadmill. Let my heart rate go back to normal for a bit."

Lynn rolls her eyes, "I'll meet you at the pool," she says before leaving him behind to get changed, "Ran, more like walked," she mutters to herself.

She looks back at him; he is struggling to walk. As soon as he notices her staring, he perks up to keep her from worrying.

"Is your knee okay?"

"Yeah, why?" he feigns innocence.

"Because you're walking like this," she says, as she mimics his strained walking.

Francisco scoffs, "Just a few steps. There's no reason to worry."

"Of course," she says. "So you won't mind if I do this," she warns him as her hand forms a fist.

Noticing what Lynn is about to do, he quickly reminds her of the gym rules, "No roughhousing on the premises outside of the designated boxing area, or you can get kicked out," he tells her pointing at the front desk staff.

"That's not roughhousing."

"I don't make the rules, and you never know what they'll count as roughhousing," he tells her as he walks into the men's locker room.

Francisco takes a seat on the bench and tries to massage his knee, "What the heck is going on?" He tries to recall anything that he might have done to cause the pain, but he can't think of anything, "I hope that this is just because of the weather outside," he tells himself.

He gets changed and heads towards the pool where Lynn is about to jump in to start her laps.

Francisco takes a seat on the edge of the pool, "It's nice to cool down."

Lynn swims towards him, "You know that this exercise works better if you get in the pool, right?"

He kicks in her direction to splash her, "There, exercise," he jokes.

She pulls on his shirt and forces him into the pool. She sticks out her tongue at him, "That's better."

Francisco emerges from the water, and glares at her, "Really?"

Lynn shrugs her shoulders, "What? I'm just having fun."

"I'll show you fun," he threatens, as he slaps a wave of water in her direction.

She quickly ducks underwater and swims away, "You're gonna have to move faster than that!"

He sighs and swims after her. The pain in his body isn't as intense as it was when he was out of the water, but he can still feel his aching knee if he moves it too hard.

She stops to look over at him, but as soon as he gets too close, she swims away, "C'mon! Don't tell me that you're slowing down on me!" she taunts.

He tries again to catch her, but he ends up overexerting himself and he screams in pain as he holds onto his knee.

Lynn, who hears him, swims towards him, and gets his head above the water, "I got you," she tells him, as she helps him towards the edge of the pool.

"I can do it," he tells her in an effort to get himself out of the water.

Lynn gets out of the pool and holds out her hand to help Francisco. She keeps her eyes on his right leg and notices that he is barely moving it.

"Are you okay?" she asks again.

He nods his head, "Yeah…I guess I got a cramp."


Lynn rests her head on the desk. For the last hour, she has been listening to Cesar go over the information on her study sheet, but she is dozing off; she doesn't know if it's because it's just one last test, because she doesn't want to study anymore, or if she was just looking forward to the month long break from school.

Cesar snaps his fingers in front of Lynn, "Wake up. If you don't want to study, I understand, but you came here for a reason. So you can either stay and listen, or you can grab your things and go."

She gets her head off of the desk, "I'm up, I'm up."

"What's wrong with you? Usually, I can get you to study, but now it seems like you've checked out."

Last week, at Cesar's suggestion, Lynn checked her grades online, and with his help, she figured out what she needed to make on each test to pass each of her classes.

"Look," he says, as he takes a seat in front of her, "I know that you don't want to work that hard especially after how hard you've worked all semester, but you don't want to develop any bad habits and settle for just getting by. Don't you want to get that A?"

She does, but she's already tired herself out trying to get passing grades on all of her exams so far.

He looks at the whiteboard, "Besides wouldn't you love to go home and show your parents that you made the dean's list? I mean, did your sisters manage that in their first semesters?"

After spending some time with one another, Cesar has picked up some tricks to get Lynn to be more cooperative when he tutors her, and so far the best one is competition; even if it does solely exist in her mind.

"Only my oldest sister has gone to college, so it's not exactly a large pool of competitors," she reminds him.

"Then be the first in your family. Then no one can take it from you," he tells her. "Just think about it."

She does. Lori returned from her first semester at Fairway with good grades and it would be nice to be able to do the same, especially with better grades.

"I guess I can bust my butt for a few more days."

"Then you can enjoy the break with mindless television or getting ahead with next semester's classes," he challenges her.

Lynn rolls her eyes, "Seriously? Is that what you do during your break?"

"Well as someone who's made the dean's list every semester he's been enrolled," he begins to brag, "I need to put in the effort to get the grades."

She grabs her study guide, "Well you are the smart guy," she mutters under breath.

"What does that mean?"

"You know what it means. It's who you are – the guy who studies for hours on end with nothing else going on."

"Lynn, I play piano, I tutor, and I have got a good handle on gardening. People are allowed to enjoy different hobbies, after all, humans are an eclectic mix of interests and everyone has some varying skill in all tasks; you can't tell me that all you can do is sports."

"You garden?" she asked, missing the point that he is trying to make.

"Yes, but that's not the point that I was trying to make," he tells her. "What do you like doing when you just want to relax? Something that isn't a sport or something that you choose to compete in."

She stops to think about it. Nearly all of her hobbies involved competition, and if it didn't, she usually didn't maintain much interest.

"I don't know. Besides, it doesn't matter; I'm the sports girl; that's what I'm mostly known for!"

"You're known for being competitive," he corrects. "You told me that you won a state math bowl, you've won a spelling bee once. Granted, the math bowl isn't going to be covered by a major sports network, but spelling bees are, and I can imagine that if someone told you that your GPA in high school was a competition, you might have won that."

Lynn raises an eyebrow, "You really think that I could have been valedictorian, who are you kidding? The only reason I didn't almost flunk out of school was because I still needed to have the grades to get in here. And as for the spelling bee, I did fine until I had to start learning crazier words like key-arrows-cure-its or something like that. Besides, if I was on my own, there's no way I'd be doing well in school."

He doesn't know what word she's referring to, but he's sad for her; knowing that she only thinks of herself as just a competitor who needs a helping hand in school. He becomes curious and asks her, "Tell me the truth, Lynn. Why do you think that all you're good for is sports and competition? Why do you think that you can't be smart or anything else on your own?"


"I could go for a sandwich at Romano's. What do you think?" asks Lynn, as the two walk through the parking lot.

Francisco wants to protest. While he is a fan of the sandwiches made by the Italian family, he isn't so fond of eating such heavy food after a workout. 'Then again, when was the last time I had a sandwich from Romano's?'

"So? Do you want one? 'Cause I'm going regardless."

"Fine, but I'm warning you now, I'm stopping you at two sandwiches."

Lynn scoffs, "What?! Why?"

He stares at her; every time that she tries to match her previous five sandwich record, she ends up regretting it while complaining about eating so much and frankly, he doesn't want to hear her whine on their way home.

"You know why," he says, "But c'mon, let's go. I'm hungry too."

The two get into his truck and head to the sandwich shop. Francisco pulls into the parking lot, and Lynn runs out of the truck to head to the door, "C'mon! There's only a few seconds left!"

"If they're closed, its fine, we can eat somewhere else," Francisco says after noticing the empty parking lot.

She manages to get inside and begins chatting with Theresa and Laura while signaling Francisco to step inside the establishment. He sighs and gets out of the truck to follow her. The bell rings and alerts the family of the other guest that entered.

Stefano, who is in the back, tells the two, "Sorry, we're closed. You can come back tomorrow."

Laura answers her brother, "It's Lynn and Francisco."

"He knows what time we close."

In a playfully snarky tone, Lynn responds, "So, I guess that means that it's okay for me to stay?"

"Preferably no," he says as he steps out of the back room, "but I already warned your boyfriend once about coming in after hours."

Martino hears the commotion downstairs and sees his most loyal customer and her boyfriend chatting with his children.

"Linda, Francesco, buonasera. Come stai oggi?" asks the older man; Lynn pauses as she tries to think of Martino asked her.

Francisco responds, "I'm fine, a little sore, but nothing I haven't felt before," he says, as he rubs his shoulder.

"You understand Italian?" Lynn asks.

"Spanish and college help me out."

"Raffaelina is upstairs making dinner, would you like to stay?" Martino offers.

Francisco shakes his head. He doesn't want to intrude and wants to get his sandwich before leaving. Lynn, however, is intrigued by the offer and goes into the back room. When she notices that Francisco isn't following her, she pops her head into the dining area, "Aren't you coming?"

"No, I just wanted a sandwich to go, besides I didn't think that I was invited to go upstairs."

She grabs his hand and pulls him to the back room, "C'mon! These guys treat me like family and you're with me."

Lynn drags him upstairs. Francisco hears the siblings closing up the shop, and he's sure that they would be offended if he keeps insisting on leaving.

She sniffs the air, and sneaks up behind Raffaelina, "I smell your famous tomato sauce."

The older woman turns around, and sees Lynn, "And I don't smell flowers or chocolate. Did you forget again?"

"I promise, next time."

Stefano takes a seat at the table, "That's what you said last time."

"And the time before that," Laura adds as she sets the table.

"And the time before that," Theresa says as she helps her sister.

Francisco walks with Martino by his side, "Uh…we should get going, it was nice seeing you guys again, but we shouldn't intrude, right Lynn?"

Martino shakes his head, "Sit, eat, talk."

Theresa pulls Francisco to a seat, "We insist, besides, Lynn isn't leaving especially after smelling food."

He nods in agreement; Lynn is helping Raffaelina plate the family's dinner, and he doubts that she isn't going to want some sort of payment of the food kind.

The food is placed at the table and the women sit down to start dinner. Even after Thanksgiving and Lucy's wedding, he still isn't used to eating family dinners with more just few other people. Francisco sits in silence as he watches everyone converse with one another.

"So how long have you and Lynn been close?" Francisco asks the family.

The family begins to speak all at once, and Francisco can't keep up with who was saying what; he's able to hear a few words, but everything was getting jumbled in his mind.

Martino whistles to stop all the talking, and he begins recounting the story in Italian. Francisco tries his hardest to keep up with that the older man is saying, but some words are still escaping him. He is able to pick up a handful of words, but the only ones that he is sure of are Easter, disaster, sympathy, sermon, and bench; it helps, but it's hardly enough to go off of.

"Then mamma talked to her and invited her to the restaurant to eat and talk. The end," Stefano finishes the story; not giving Francisco much to work with either.

Laura interjected, "Not the end. Lynn still comes every Sunday to see her."

Francisco looks over at Lynn eating away at the bowl of pasta in front of her. 'Every Sunday?'

Raffaelina leans into Lynn's ear and whispers, which prompted Lynn to stop eating and begin counting with her fingers. The older woman keeps an eye on Lynn as she continues to count and as the family continues to talk and ask questions.

"So, Francisco," starts Laura, "how did you and Lynn meet?"

The family had a vague idea after eavesdropping on Lynn's conversations, but they don't know all of the details; their mother hasn't asked, and all Lynn mentions is that they've known each other since they were kids in a baseball field.

"Well…" Francisco tries to clear his throat. "We were about twelve and met at the park."

The family isn't satisfied, "That's it?!" they all said.

They were all expecting more than that, especially since they are asking him directly, but to hear Francisco summarize his and Lynn's first time meeting into a few words, left them wanting to know more.

"Who knew that we've been told the long version?" complains Stefano.

The sisters and Martino laugh.

Martino begins to eat and asks, "Francesco, vuoi del vino?"

The children all scold him, and suddenly it turns from a conversation that Francisco could keep up with to one that he could barely understand a thing that is being said.

Francisco grabs his fork to eat. This is isn't how he imagined his evening going; all he wanted to do was just exercise at the gym and maybe go home and enjoy some crappy television, instead he ends up in a family's dining room eating almost alone as Lynn continues to count and the family keeps talking.

As soon as the pasta touched his mouth, he smiles in delight at the delicious food. He doesn't notice Lynn pointing at him to Raffaelina as he continues to eat.

"Looks like you've got someone else hooked on your recipe," Lynn tells Raffaelina, "Now he's gonna follow me here every chance he can."

Francisco notices everyone staring at him. He didn't realize that he was devouring the food in front of him, "What?"

Lynn turns to Raffaelina, "You better start jarring up that sauce, because someone is going to want to buy it and eat it like him."

Stefano jokingly scoffs, "Like she'll ever sell it."

The family and couple laugh, and enjoy the rest of the meal in peace.

As the couple step out of the restaurant and get into his truck, Francisco turns to Lynn and asks, "So…every Sunday?" He is curious to know why she would go out of her way to visit the family as frequently as she does; he would have understood if it was her own family, but what made these people so special?

"Yeah, why?"

Francisco struggles to find the right words, "Well, it just seems strange that you spend that much time with your local Italian deli owner."

Lynn shrugs her shoulders, "They're nice, and they make a killer sauce. You should know," she teases as she lightly pushed into him.

It is delicious, but it still didn't answer his question.

She could see that he isn't entirely satisfied with the answer, "Look. They helped me out when I needed it, so I like to return the favor, either by spending time with them or buying a crap ton of sandwiches whenever I can."

"How do they help you?"

Lynn stays quiet, "I'll tell you another time."

He is surprised by that answer. Normally, she doesn't have much problem opening up to him, but it makes him curious to find out the reason for her visits.

"You know you can talk to me about what's going on, right," he informs her.

She lightly groans, "Enough already! Jeez! It's just something between us, so why does it matter? Let me keep something to myself. Not like you'd understand," she mutters under her breath.

After her outburst, he decides to turn the conversation to something else, "So…do you have any plans for this Christmas Eve?"

Lynn looks at him. Despite their time dating, neither one made much of an effort to spend time with the other during the holidays, preferring to spend time with their own families.

"Elena is having a piano recital and then afterwards we were planning on spending Christmas Eve with my mom and brother."

"Oh…" she isn't sure what to say. He's never invited her to any of Elena's activities before, and she isn't sure if she wants to intrude at a time like this. "I don't know…I mean, aren't the holidays more for you guys?"

Francisco raises an eyebrow; surprised by her statement, especially considering that Lynn spent Christmas with them two years ago.

She shakes her, "Umm…maybe not the recital, but I'm not making promises for the other thing either. I mean, I've got my family for Christmas and it's kinda hard to avoid family when you live in the same city."

"Oh…okay then…"


'Why do you think that all you're good for is sports and competition? Why do you think that you can't be smart or anything else on your own?'

That question has been bouncing in her head for days. In the past, she won a state math bowl, and there was that spelling bee in elementary school, but aside from that her main accomplishments have been in sports.

Lynn stares down at her textbook. She looks at the first few words of the lengthy paragraph, and without reading it, she shifts her head away from the text and towards her sports almanac, "There's one reason," she says to herself.

School is hard and has never been her thing, and no matter how hard Lisa tried to help her, it didn't last long.

She pulls out her sports almanac and reads through the pages; now if high school was about this then she would have been a straight-A student, "Or if it was more hands-on…" she sighs.

There isn't much she can do, aside from labs, her classes are lecture, which doesn't give her much opportunity to use her hands and learn by doing. Cesar has tried to teach her to use her imagination when she's on her own so that she can picture being the one doing what she was learning, but if it isn't in front of her, it's easy for her to just move onto something more interesting.

Megan walks in and sees her roommate reading the almanac and ignoring her textbook, "Doing some light reading before the break?"

Lynn looks up, "Do you think that I'm good at anything besides sports?"

Megan doesn't know how to answer. She barely knows her roommate, but based on the habits that she's noticed over the last couple of months, she knows that Lynn is the type to forego studying in favor of playing some sort of game, she's an act first, think later kind of person, and she's always doing something that keeps her moving.

She slowly starts, "I think that you're…"

Without letting her finish, Lynn sighs, "Yeah, I thought so."

"You didn't let me finish, I think that you are an action person and that you push yourself to excel in competition," Megan says in an effort make her roommate feel better.

Lynn sighs – she already thought of herself in that regard, and she's sure that if she asks other people they'll just say the same thing.

Rather than continue, Lynn nods, "Thanks."

"Why did you ask?"

"I don't know…I think 'cause Cesar got in my head."

"Well I'm just one person, why don't you ask someone else?"

Asking anyone that she knows on campus would probably result in the same answer, but then again, there are her old friends from Royal Woods; they've known her for years, they would probably have a good answer and help her put her worries to rest.

She pulls out her laptop and finds Margo online, she sends her friend a message and asks her to chat.

Margo starts a video chat session, "Hey Lynn, how are you doing?"

"Not bad. I think I'm about to make the dean's list?"

Impressed, but also surprised, Margo congratulates her friend, "Wow, that's great! You didn't call just to brag, did you?" she jokes.

"Well maybe a little," Lynn says, going along with Margo's joke. "Anyway, can I ask you something, when you think of me, what's the first thing that runs through your mind?"

"That you're always on the move. For as long as I've known you, Lynn, you run around or play longer than anyone I've known, but–"

The screen cuts off.

"What the hell?!" Lynn presses the buttons on her laptop, but nothing brings the device back to life.

"Did you forget to charge it again?" asks Megan, who is well aware of her roommate's forgetfulness when it comes to charging her laptop or other devices.

Lynn gets a text from Margo, asking what happened.

I forgot to charge my laptop

Again? lol
How do you forget to do that?

I have a phone that can do nearly the same things as a laptop, forgive me for forgetting
So how is school going?

The girls text back and forth for about an hour, until Margo has to leave for class.

Lynn tosses her phone aside and grabs her laptop to charge it.

Megan asks her roommate, "So what was your friend going to say about you until she got interrupted?"

Lynn slaps her forehead, realizing that she forgot to finish asking Margo about what she was going to say, "Well, that's fine. I've got other friends I can ask," she declares before heading out the door.

She spots Bryton walking back from class, "Hey Bryton, wanna go for a run?"

He shakes his head, "Nope. Too cold."

"But running can warm you up," she says in hopes of tempting him.

He shakes his head, "Not unless we're running to my dorm."

"Fine, a short run it is. Ready?"

"Nope."

"Why not?"

He points to his building, "It's not going to be much of a dramatic race," he says.

"Fine! A quick question," she starts as she follows him to his building, "what's the first thing to pop to mind when you think of me?"

"Competitive and hungry," he says without a second thought. "I mean, you eat like there's no tomorrow," he jokes.

"Ha ha," she says sarcastically. "I'm serious."

"So am I," he tells her, as he steps into his building.

She sighs, "Well that was a bust."


Elena's heart is pounding, as she nervously twirls her fingers. She is pacing back and forth in the living room; thinking about how this whole recital could go wrong. She's had months of practice, but a Christmas recital where families are recording with cameras and all dressed up nicely to hear classical music is not something that she wants to mess up.

Francisco, who notices his daughter's anxiety, walks into the living room, "You're going to be fine. You've worked hard and practiced for weeks, I know that you can do it," he says, as he pulls her into a hug in an effort to relax her. "Now close your eyes, take a deep breath, and hold it for ten seconds."

The girl does as she is told, and looks up at her dad. "Are you sure that Lynn couldn't come?"

He nods, "She said that she had to help her sisters with something, but she said that if there was time, she would come with us to go to your abuela's."

That is a lie.

The truth is that Lynn is probably spending time with her family and won't have time to visit him and his family. However, Francisco isn't sure what has come over his daughter to suddenly invite Lynn to something that would normally be reserved for him and Caroline, but Elena wants Lynn to be there, and he didn't want to openly question it.

"You just keep breathing, I'm going to go finish getting ready, and then we'll go," he says as he steps outside to the backyard.

Elena glances in the direction of the door, and with a smile she says to herself, "He still hasn't learned how to tie a tie?"

Francisco looks in the direction of Jackson's door, and he calls out to the man. Jackson steps out of his house, "Good afternoon, Francisco."

"Hey Jackson, how are you doing?"

"I'm doing well," he notices the loose tie around Francisco's neck and knows exactly why his neighbor called him. He gestures the younger man to approach him, Jackson grabs hold of the tie, "How many lessons have I given you?"

"About three? Thanksgiving last year, Elena's birthday, and Lucy's wedding a few months ago. I'm trying to remember, but I still can't get the hang of it," Francisco admits, as he keeps his eyes on the older man's technique. "I guess you can say that it's not entirely necessary to learn?"

Jackson shakes his head, "It never hurts to learn a new skill, Francisco. So how is Elena? Is she ready for her recital?"

"No," Francisco says, as he looks at his watch. Jackson finishes, "Thanks by the way. I keep trying to tell her that she's going to be fine, but I know that she just doesn't want to make a fool of herself."

"Well, you can't blame her; it's a public performance, at her age, it's easy to make a mountain out of a mole hill."

Francisco nods his head, "Maybe it's because it's been so long since I've had to do anything in front of a crowd, at least involuntary."

"What was the last thing you did in front of a crowd?"

The younger man tries to remember, "I think it was going up against Lynn on the mound back when Elena played ball, but I chose to do that. I forgot about the crowd, all I did was just look at Lynn, and everything just disappeared."

"Maybe that's something that you should help Elena achieve," Jackson points to the girl, who is pacing again in the living room. Francisco thanks the man for his words and walks inside.

He tries to think of anything that would make her forget her worries, but unless he plans on making a trip to a candy store on the way to the recital, it's not happening.

"There's a museum, but again, can't do that…" he looks at his daughter pacing back and forth and remembers something from when she was very young.

Elena hears her dad walk through the door. She stops pacing and grabs her sheet music, so they can leave.

"Wait," Francisco let's out his hand to Elena, "hold my hands." She does as she's told, and he begins to slowly dance.

Elena lets out a little giggle, "What are you doing?"

"When you were little, this always made you smile, so I'm hoping it still works," he says, despite the girl turning her head away from him. "So how does that piece go, for your recital?"

Elena sighs and begins to hum Twilight Waltz. The two go back and forth, and she almost feels like she's a little girl again, back she when didn't have a care in the world; no worrying about school, performing in front of people, and back when she was dancing with her feet placed on her dad's while they dance in the living room of her abuelita's house.

Her mind drifts to those memories, despite having very few to remember.

The two continue dancing until Elena stops humming. She holds her dad tightly, and whispers a thanks for reminding her of that memory.

"Well that was fun," Francisco tells her.

Elena slowly nods in agreement. Her heart isn't pounding and while she is still nervous, she's much calmer than she was a few minutes ago.

He checks the time on his watch, "We should get going, we don't want to be late," he warns her, as he grabs her coat.


She busts through the door of the tutoring room, "Alright! Tell me the truth, what the heck do you see in me that apparently no one else can?!"

Cesar looks at Lynn, "Excuse me?"

She marches up to his face, "You heard me! What do you see in me that no one else can? What makes you think that there's hope for me being nothing more than some sports fanatic that can't sit still for more than a minute?"

He didn't expect her to bust through the door and ask such a thing, especially after a week has passed, "You still remember?"

"Don't change the subject! Tell me what you think of me?"

Cesar is surprised by the way worded her question and tries to think of an answer, "I think that anyone can be what they want–"

"Yeah, yeah, save the after school speech," she interrupts, "Look, I've talked to a few of people, my old friends, roommates, and they all think the same thing, that I'm competitive, athletic, and have a monster appetite, so why do you think that I can be something else?"

He sighs, "Lynn, I asked, why did you place yourself as just this one person. Do you honestly see yourself as a one-dimensional cartoon character that can't be more well-rounded?"

Lynn shudders at the last words, and Cesar looks away from her; she reflects better when she isn't making eye-contact with the person that she wants to confront, "I don't know…I know what I'm good at and I stick with it."

"Why are you letting other people say who you are? The question wasn't for them, it was for you. If we meet again as strangers," he asks at the wall, "would you only want to be seen as just an athlete alone or as someone who can be smart or creative or something else too?"

Lynn doesn't say a thing. For nearly her whole life, she has defined herself as someone who enjoys sports and has fun; she doesn't consider much else.

Cesar turns around, "Let me ask you again, why do you think that all you're good for is sports and competition? Why do you think that you can't be smart or anything else on your own?"

"I don't know…I've always played sports, ever since I was a little kid, it was the only way someone else would play without someone saying that I was annoying or getting in their way, plus, it helped that I was good at it."

He smiles, "And being smart?"

She takes a deep breath and sighs loudly, "I guess, 'cause I always struggled in school. First, my parents helped me, then teachers, my friends, and siblings, and now you…I don't think I can remember a time when someone wasn't helping me to make sure that I stayed on track with my schoolwork."

Cesar looks at his backpack, "Well, just because you struggle, doesn't mean that you can't be smart. Look how well you've done, and–"

"Yeah," she scoffs, "with your help."

"Let me finish," he answers back, "you know something about college? It's a good chance to reinvent yourself, and it's easy when you're in a new place. I'm not saying that you have to different person, but you don't have to live your old life here, I know I don't."

Lynn opens her mouth to ask, but he quickly stops her, "Please don't ask. I came to Michigan for school, to get ahead, and to not be who I was back home. Maybe one day I'll say what, but not today."

She nods, "Okay, but I'm not gonna change my personality overnight."

"I'm not saying that. I just want you to see yourself as someone who is capable in more than just sports, it's okay to see yourself as more than just the competitive athlete; there's more to you than just that one thing."

"Fine, I'll try to see myself as more than one thing…so, do you need someone to help you garden?"

Cesar smiles, "Sure, the more the merrier."


Francisco takes a seat and sees Caroline and Andrew walk through the doors. He is surprised that Andrew is here, when suddenly it clicked; Elena invited Lynn, probably because she already invited Andrew.

He waves at them, and the couple takes a seat next to him.

"Merry Christmas, Francisco," greets Caroline.

"Merry Christmas, Caroline, Andrew."

"Francisco, Merry Christmas."

Caroline asks, "How's she doing?"

"Nervous, I swear if my rear windows were automatic, she probably would have spent the whole ride over numbing her face with cold air."

She looks over at Elena and waves at her, "Poor thing." She turns to Andrew, "Make sure you start recording when she's already seated so that she doesn't think of the camera."

"Elena's going to be fine," Francisco assures Caroline. "She's not the first one up, and chances are somebody is going to mess up and she'll realize that it's okay."

A mother in front of the three adults turns back and glares at Francisco.

"Well it's true. Chances are your kid is nervous too," he tells the stranger.

Andrew snickers.

"Don't laugh, it's rude," Caroline sternly tells Andrew. "Is Lynn around?" she asks Francisco.

He shakes his head, "No, she said that she didn't want to intrude."

Both adults are surprised to hear him say that. From their understanding, he and Lynn have been dating for over two years, and to know that she isn't comfortable being at an event that Elena invited her to is strange.

Caroline asks, "Does she spend much time with Elena?"

Francisco shakes his head, "No, but she was her coach, and it's the holidays, she's going to be busy with her own family."

"And during the rest of the year?"

He sighs, "She spends time with her sisters on Saturdays and with the owners of her favorite sandwich shop on Sundays; her weekends aren't free."

Neither one knows what to say.

Andrew breaks the silence, "So she spends time with strangers, but not Elena? I mean, is there a reason that she chooses to spend her Sundays with them?"

Francisco shrugs his shoulders, "I don't know, she wouldn't tell me."

Caroline holds back a giggle. It's almost hilarious that Lynn is doing to him what he used to do to her; granted, she can understand that Lynn has her own life and wants Francisco to not split his time between her and Elena, but to hear that she goes out of her way to spend time strangers and not tell Francisco why is almost like karma.

"Go ahead, laugh."

"I'm not going to laugh out loud, but I hope you remember this feeling," she looks at Elena, "So, Lynn didn't want to come to this?"

"At some point, I've just stopped asking," he admits.

"You should bring it up. You two have been together for some time, and Elena asked her to come here for her; how does it look when she doesn't do so?"

Francisco stays quiet.

Caroline sighs, and whispers "You lied for her."

"I didn't lie," he whispers, "but I didn't tell Lynn that Elena wanted her here."

"Then tell her next time, because at some point, Elena is going to think that Lynn is avoiding her and doesn't want to get to know her."

Andrew quietly reminds Francisco, "Technically, you omitted facts, so you did lie." Caroline and Francisco stare at him, "Okay, not what you both wanted to hear."

Francisco looks at his watch; he has a few minutes until the recital starts, "Excuse me, I'll be back," he tells Caroline and Andrew, as he gets up from his seat.

He heads into the hallway and pulls out his phone and calls Lynn. He can hear a movie playing in the background before she responds.

"Hey Francisco, what's up?"

"Not much. Hey, I know you said that you were going to be with your family tonight, but…my offer still stands if you want to come to my mom's place tonight. We're going to have pozole, play lotería, and open presents. I mean, I know that you already have plans, but it'd really mean a lot to me and Elena if you came."

Lynn doesn't say a thing. She didn't know that Lisa and Lily were going to go with their parents to Chicago to visit Luna, Luan, and her family, and that Lucy would spend Christmas Eve with Rocky and his family again, although Lucy did call to let her know that the two former roommates can make plans to spend Christmas day together, but now she has another chance to join in on Francisco and his family's festivities.

"You know what, yeah, I can come by. Just send me the time and address."

"Are you sure? I don't want to take you from your family."

"They'll be fine. Besides, it's your Christmas tonight and tomorrow is mine. I'll make you come to Lucy's place tomorrow."

"Alright, I'll see you after the recital, and Lynn, thanks…for you know, coming over."

"You're welcome, now go and see Elena kill it on stage."

Francisco hangs up and texts Lynn the address before heading back inside to see the recital about to start. He looks over at Elena and gives her a small smile to wish her luck.

The piano teacher begins, "I want to thank everyone for coming out this evening. I know that the children have worked very hard to make this recital possible, and I ask that you please silence your phones. Now, without further ado, here is Arnold playing Pachabel's Canon."

The parents clap. One by one each of the students are presented and begin to play their pieces, as Francisco predicted, there were some students who made mistakes; some didn't take well to it and paused for a moment, and others took it in stride as they continued playing. He isn't sure how Elena would take it, but he hopes that she has calmed down after seeing the others make mistakes.

When Elena steps up to the bench and she takes a deep breath. Her trepidation from earlier that day is beginning to creep up on her, and she begins to sway back and forth as if she were dancing. Francisco and Andrew take out their cameras to record, and Elena begins to play.

The three adults look at her as she plays; all of them proud of how hard she's worked to do well tonight. Upon completing the piece, Elena gets up from the bench, and the two men stop recording to join Caroline as they clap for her.

When the recital is over, Elena joins the three, and gives her mom a hug, "I'm so happy that it's over."

"Well we're all proud of you, and you did so well," Caroline complimented.

Elena looks up, embarrassed, "Thank you."

"You did great out there," Andrew complimented.

Francisco nods his head, and opens his arms to bring Elena in for a hug.

"Thanks dad," she says.

"For what?"

"For the dance earlier today."

"You're welcome."

Francisco looks at his watch, "I hate to cut this short, but we should get going," he tells Elena. "Your abuela is about to start dinner soon and we want to get in a few rounds of lotería before we open presents."

"Okay," she turns to her mom and giver her one last hug.

Francisco glances and sees the diamond ring on Caroline's left hand. He silently nods, as it becomes clear why Andrew was invited to the recital.

Caroline kisses her daughter's forehead, "Merry Christmas, honey."

Elena smiles, "Merry Christmas, mom."

The girl scurries towards the exit as she waits to walk to the truck with her dad. Francisco stays behind and looks over at the couple in front of him, "Merry Christmas…and congrats on the engagement."